STATEN ISLAND, N.Y. -- Citing personal bankruptcy and his company’s name change, a New Dorp lawyer refused to fork over an arbitration award that a client obtained for the attorney’s failure to perform contracted work.

$5,000 — the Small Claims Court maximum — for an arbitration award she obtained in April.

Straniere’s ruling marked the second time this year he has lambasted DeFilippo for trying to worm out of paying a client’s arbitration award.

“[DeFilippo] was not entitled to the monies paid him by [Ms. Ruberto],” Straniere, who is supervising judge of Civil Court, West Brighton, wrote in a post-trial ruling handed down earlier this month. “It was never his money. He never earned the fee. ... If the attorney does not perform the work, he must return the money.”

Court papers said Ms. Ruberto hired DeFilippo in February 2008 to perform legal work in connection with her mother’s estate. Mary Ruberto, a Port Richmond Center resident, died in January 2008, Advance records show.

In November 2008, Ms. Ruberto sought a return of her $5,500 retainer, contending DeFilippo had done nothing.

She subsequently went to arbitration, and eight months ago was awarded $5,500, the judge said. He noted that DeFilippo did not participate in the arbitration process.

Ms. Ruberto sued the attorney in Small Claims Court when he did not reimburse her.

She and DeFilippo represented themselves at a trial in October.

DeFilippo sought to shoot down Ms. Ruberto’s claim on a number of fronts.

First, he contended there were, in fact, two retainers — one for Ms. Ruberto’s mother’s estate work and another to perform estate planning for Ms. Ruberto’s father.

Straniere nixed that argument.

He said DeFilippo failed to produce either retainer or document his claim of doing work for Ms. Ruberto’s father. The lawyer said he had applied the $5,500 retainer to those efforts.

The judge also dismissed DeFilippo’s bid to wipe out his debt to Ms. Ruberto due to his personal bankruptcy. DeFilippo and his wife filed for bankruptcy in New Jersey in December 2008, said court papers.

“[DeFilippo] obtained these legal fees, by ‘false pretenses’ or by ‘a false representation,’” Straniere wrote. “To permit the defendant to escape from legal-fee refund obligations by the use of a discharge in bankruptcy would undermine public confidence in the legal system and make a mockery of lawyer-client relationship.”

The lawyer maintained Ms. Ruberto had contracted with his former company, Michael DeFilippo, P.C., and he isn’t personally liable for its debts. DeFilippo recently practiced under the name DeFilippo & Associates, and his current phone message advises callers they have reached Michael J. DeFilippo, attorney at law.

Earlier this year, the attorney had advanced a similar argument in a case brought by a former client, Nanette Spina of Great Kills.

In May, Straniere, accused DeFilippo of playing a corporate shell game to avoid paying the debt and ordered him to pay Ms. Spina a $3,790 arbitration award.

“YOU ARE A LAWYER!!!! and not some ‘fly-by-night’ business incorporating to limit its liability,” the judge admonished in his ruling then.

Afterward, DeFilippo told the Advance that decision “adversely impacts” all professionals who established professional corporations to protect their personal assets.